Finding Your Purpose

Updated on July 9, 2009

Finding Your Purpose And Earning In The Process

Do
you know that you can actually earn from the results of your hard work
in finding your purpose? And that is not the only goal that you will
likely get in the process. If you feel like you are stuck in your
current job, you have to rethink your life and where you are taking it.
You are the driver of your own vehicle and you decide where you will
go. But you are only human so you must be open for mistakes and other
challenges that life may bring along your journey.

Living
to earn is very different from earning a living. With the latter, you
can be more adventurous. Life can be more fun, especially when you are
pursuing the things that you really like and earning money in the
process. This is the reason why people who have chosen an unlikely
route just so they can earn good amount of cash will likely feel the
downside of their decision at some point on their lives.

Comfort Zone

Are
you at a place where you feel like you are already too comfortable?
This is not really a good thing. If you have been working the same job,
which was not what you really wanted to do deep in your heart, through
time, you will be able to master the craft. You will know how to work
your way through the job where you won’t get into any trouble. You will
get your job done, you will be paid, then you will have to work over
and over again the same tasks every day. This set up may be giving you
enough money to live by. But are your living the life that you really
wanted to attain? If not, then maybe it is time to get out of your
comfort zone.

You
have to take risks in order to know your capabilities. You must not be
afraid to fail because that is part of the whole ballgame. You just
have to learn from your own mistakes.

Earning from Your Passion

If
you really love what you are doing, you will eventually excel on it.
You can even pursue your passion as a side project aside from your real
job. This is ideal for people who are afraid to lose their main source
of income. Your passion can actually bring in more cash if you will be
able to utilize them well to your advantage. For example, you are good
in writing or painting. You only have to use your talents, hone them
and soon enough, you will surprise everyone that your passion has led
you to more profitable source of income.

If
you will open yourself to these kinds of possibilities, there will come
a time when you can comfortably choose your passion and drop the job
that you don’t really like and earn as much as well. This is a very
ideal situation because when you love what you are doing, it will show
in the quality of work that you are producing. It will also reflect on
how you live your life and your attitude towards anything that you may
encounter as you go through it.

But
setting the right goals and finding your purpose may not be as easy as
it seems to be. You really have to think hard about it so that you can
be led to the right course.

Finding your purpose Even if You Are Already Old

If
you are at the point in your life when you feel like you are already
too old to pursue the route in finding your purpose, stop the thought.
No one is too old or neither too young to go where they really want to
go. If you will surrender to defeat, you will never know what could
have happened if only you have allowed yourself to take risks in order
to attain what you heart wants you to.

Age
doesn’t matter when it comes to pursuing what will make you feel
complete. This is necessary so that when you finally cannot muster
strength to move forward, you can always look back at your achievements
with fulfillment in your heart.

Age Is Not a Factor

As
you go through life, there are many phases that you have to conquer
before you can proclaim success over various ventures. You may have
different priorities when you were younger, which may be the reason why
you have not really focused into realizing what your real passion is.
This can be easy and this can be done. But life gets more complicated
as you age, reason why you tend to neglect to remember what you really
want to achieve in the first place.

When
you were young, you think that you have to succeed no matter what. This
is an ideal mindset because you owe it to the people who helped raise
you up to be better and to excel in whatever path you have chosen to
walk on. And in order to succeed, some people choose to set aside their
inner longings to give in to the opportunities that are being presented
to them the moment that they need these. They grab on to these
opportunities thinking like after they have earned good money and saved
up a lot, they will go back to what they really want and pursue their
passion.

Some
people never get the chance to look back. Once they feel like they are
already settled in the environment that they have chosen to be in, they
fear that they will lose everything if they will let it go to pursue
something that they are not really sure what the outcome will be. So
they decide to stay in the place where they are even though they feel
like they are stuck with it. If you are doing something that you don’t
really like, you will feel like life is dragging you to do things. You
are creating your own prison where you are making calculated moves and
you know exactly what to do whenever anything goes wrong.

Once
you get too comfortable with this scenario, you will likely be afraid
to come out of it. So you have to take a risk before you get into such
state. If you will allow yourself to be a prisoner of that situation
where you are being driven by money, you will find it to go back to the
point when you have promised your passion that you will get back at it.
That promise is important because you owe it to yourself to make this
happen. This way, once you are old and you have accomplished so much,
you will see light on what really matters if you have followed your
guts to lead you in fulfilling your dreams.

finding
your purpose can still be achieved even if you are already old. You
just have to set your heart and mind to it to be able to attain your
goals.

How to find your purpose

Following
your passion brings personal power and awakens yourself to the beauty
of the world. It leads you to the heart of spiritual journey as it
changes your thoughts, perceptions, and feelings. finding your purpose
does not promise an easy life rather a rich life open to hopes and
possibility.

1.
Speak your truths clearly – To find your purpose you must speak your
truths and ready yourself to new adventures. Know what really matter to
you? What truly makes you happy? Know the things you do best and makes
you feel complete.

2.
Be open for support – You must also keep in mind that you are not an
isolated being ñ you need the support of family, friends and
positive-minded social circle that will help you reach your goals.

3.
Open up your senses – When you open up your senses, you tend experience
Godís blessings and you feel more peaceful and serene. This allows you
to be more patient and be reminded the cycle of nature. When you
experience this you become more positive and calm.

4.
Give yourself a time for pleasure – Waking up in the morning away from
busy schedules and having the freedom to do the things that brings you
pleasure? To find your purpose you must allow yourself a time for
pleasure. For many people, allowing pleasures induces guilt as it is
not productive and hinders you from getting important things
accomplished. But this view of pleasure is actually a matter of
opinion. Gentle pleasures are good to your health and are productive.
By allowing yourself time for pleasure you become more focused and
passionate in your job.

5.
Liberate yourself – A person who finds her passion is a truly wise
person. Doing a work that reflects your personality and values promises
you a lifelong happiness and contentment. It is easier and liberating
when we accept who we are and we allow other people to accept us too.
The human psyche is a holistic system, to numb one part of our being is
to numb the rest and create constant struggle (Finding Joy, 15).

6.
Feed yourself with affirmations – Affirmations are important in finding
your purpose in life as it makes you feel secure and optimistic about
reaching your goals. A lot of people donít get to their destinations
out of fear of failure. You should allow yourself to get upset by some
downturns but remind yourself to pull yourself together past and get on
track again. Some people might influence you into thinking negative.
Itís not so easy to shut them out of your life. But itís easier to
practice blocking the negative energies that they bring into your life.
It keeps your sanity.

finding
your purpose is an endless song. When you do the things that you are
passionate about you allow you let your life to flourish. You let
yourself connect to everything you are ñ in mind, in heart, and in
spirit. You are a stronger that can face challenges better because you
are reinforced by being able to do the things you love. You feel more
alive, positive, self-respecting, and determined. You live your life
with confidence and high morale. And you feel you are contributing
goodness and positivism to the people in your life.

Understanding Your Strengths and Values: Key to finding your purpose at Work

Knowing
yourself and feeling confident about yourself helps a lot in finding
your purpose at work. This begins with accurate understanding of your
strengths and values ñ itís what makes you feel good about yourself.
The process starts by evaluating the factors that molded your
personality ñ family, experiences, education, and trainings. Majority
of your strengths and values can be determined even at young age. Some
are product of your parentsí upbringing while some are product of
unfulfilled needs you try to reinforce as you grow mature. Knowing your
top top-five strengths and values gives you a template by which you
measure choices in your career and personal life. Being successful at
work means you can freely use all of these strengths as well as fulfill
your values.

When
your act is not reflected with your strengths and values, what do you
feel? Useless and powerless? You fail when you find yourself in a work
that tells so little about your values, your thought and feelings. When
you are in this kind of situation, you feel tied up in a routine that
is too far from your own personality. You will usually feel bored and
unfulfilled. You donít look forward to exciting and adventurous days.
You feel trapped and always wish for vacations, day-offs and lunch
breaks. Regardless of how much money you make, when you deny your
thoughts and feelings ñ your work is difficult and boring.

The
best time to determine your strengths and values are when you are
honest and direct. By accepting your feelings you reveal so much of
your potentials and possibilities in life. It is also important to
become proud of yourself. Some people hide their true strengths out of
fear of rejection. Your power lies in your uniqueness and powerful
people are confident about their self even if itís about negative or
positive one. To find your purpose at work you must resist the urge of
comparing yourself to others as it limits your choices and career
development.

Your
hobbies and interests tell so much about your strengths and values. We
take pleasures in the things we do such as reading, gardening and
traveling. The things you do naturally and effortlessly motivate and
empower you. Pleasurable experiences are either academic or
non-academic. When you enjoy yourself doing something, your personal
strengths are clearly manifested. Remind yourself of the times you feel
so happy at work? What are the values and strengths that were so
evident from you?

Values
change over time but there are some that remains imbedded in our
personality. These values reflect what you think is good and
worthwhile. Of all human activities, work has the potential of
fulfilling your personal values and defines your career choices. When
you are true to yourself and passionate with your values you are most
likely to find yourself in the work you love and enjoy. Most of your
values are evident in the things you do and say. While there are some
that comes into the open under certain circumstances.

Now
that you have assessed your strengths and values, you already can
determine your parameter when looking for new employer or job. Make
sure the values and strengths you have are in line with your job or
employer. In finding your purpose at work it is important to be able to
fully share the values and strengths important to you.

Know What Really Matters and Find Your Purpose

What
are the things that really matters to you at work? How do you define
success at work? Majority of the working people confess to experience a
disconnection between having a job and doing what they are really
passionate about. Many of these people are experiencing irregular
sleeping habits, stress, and left for years wondering what really
matters in their life. Since work is not just an eight-hour
interruption of the day and you spend most of waking hours on it, it is
important to start finding your purpose and incorporate it in your job.
Whether you like it or not, you are affected by choices you make at
your job. How you act at work is often the most documented record of
who you are, what you stand for, and what you believe.

For
you to feel what really matters it is important that you can clearly
determine the how, when, and why of the discovery of finding joy,
serenity, and fulfillment in life. Firstly, you must find yourself.
Many people already knows what really matters to them but are clouded
with daily excuses and conflicting priorities that restricts them from
following their lifelong wishes. If you want to find your purpose you
must let your heart and true calling guide you.

Ask
yourself these questions: ìWhat made your greatest work experience so
great? What made your worst experience so bad? What is the most
important thing missing from your life right now? Who is most important
to you? What lesson has served you best throughout your career? What
message has been bouncing inside your head for the past year? Who
influenced you the most?î (What is Your Lifeís Work by Bill Jensen,
60). The answers to these questions are the lessons you learned in your
work life. Ponder on them; it will keep you always on track to your
passions in life.

You
never get back the time you spent to the company. Time is precious and
every day you are asked to make thousand of choices that defines who
you are. Finding the choices that really matter to you will help you
not to waste your precious time in life. So you must choose wisely! Be
aware and clear. Know and claim the choices that lead you to your
passion.

The
things we do at work transforms the way other people view us. Does your
work reflect your true personality? Or your everyday choices at work
allow you to be true to yourself? If you want to life your life to the
fullest, have the courage to be true to your passion and find the job
that gives you the opportunity to do it.

Follow
your heart and dreams and strive on finding your purpose. When you do
this, you will experience a transformational leap of knowing yourself
and connection to the universe. Each person has a unique final
discovery of their passion but it truly determines who you want to be.
World-renowned essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson has sum up the things that
defines an individualís success, you might find inspiration thru his
words:

Success

To laugh often and much;to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.This is to have succeeded.

Popular Gurus Tackling About finding your purpose

There
are so many leadership speakers, psychologists, spiritual guides,
authors, writers and specialists that will guide and help you in
finding your purpose. Itís a lifelong journey they say and each person
consciously or unconsciously is in constant struggle to this journey.
Here are some of the popular gurus in the country which you can contact
to attend discussions and self-improvement workshops:

1.
Bill Jensen is an information architect and internationally renowned
speaker with thirty years of experience in consulting. Aside from ìWhat
Is Your Lifeís Workî he had also authored three other books: The
Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage, The Simplicity Survival
Handbook, and Work 2.0. His book ìWhat Is Your Lifeís Workî is a
reminder of how short and precious our lives are and thus we need to
recover our wisdom and work that brings us happiness and fulfillment.
The book detailed some cherished exchanges between mothers and
daughters, fathers and sons, and caring teammates and friends all
sharing their thoughts and experiences at work and life in general. His
first book ìSimplicity: The New Competitive Advantage has been printed
in over 15 languages and was among Amazonís Best List
Leadership/Management book in the year 2000. He is base in Morristown,
NJ.

2.
Janet Quinn, Ph.D. is a registered nurse and distinguished researcher
of Therapeutic Touch. Her book ìI Am a Woman Finding My Voice:
Celebrating the Extraordinary Blessings of Being a Woman is her first
published book. It is a book of affirmations especially made for women
which invites readers to reflect and find their passion in life. It
draws readers to find inner space of solitude to become completely
aware of oneís essential being.

3.
Charlotte D. Kasl is a feminist, social justice activist and
psychologist. Among her published books are ìFinding Joy,î ìMany Roads
One Journ,î ìWomen, Sex, Addiction.î ìFinding Joyî is a spiritual
guidebook that shows readers to live a more balanced and richer life.
Her another book that talks about finding your purpose is ìMany Roads
One Journ,î another guidebook with 12-step program that offers help to
readers to draw on the steps underlying wisdom based on personal
beliefs and strengths. Charlotte believes of living life one day at a
time. She says,î the only sure path is to live consciously, moment to
moment, as you let go of the outcome.î

4.
Nancy Anderson is a career consultant living in California. She is
renowned for her book ìWork with Passion: How to Do What You Love for a
Living published in year 2004. In 1976, she begun as career consultant
and shared firm with two fiends. After five successful years in the
business, she decided to put uo her own consulting business at which
she also started working on the book ìWork with Passionî based on her
own and clientsí experiences.

5.
Chris Widener is a well known author and speaker. He has been in the
business of public speaking and leadership training for twenty years.
He founded the ìMade for Successî a leading personal development
companies. He has authored nine books including ìThe Angel Inside,î a
New York Times Bestseller about a young man in search of lifeís meaning
and purpose. Unexpectedly, in his last tour in Europe, he met an old
man who had led him to the discovery on the art and life of
Michaelangelo. The artist and the artwork helped him to realize the
hidden potential that exists in him. If you are in the process of
finding your purpose, this book is a great inspiration that will make
you feel you are not alone in this quest.

Secrets on finding your purpose at Work

finding
your purpose at work is the key to ensure lifelong happiness,
contentment and good health. When you love what you do, it matters less
how much money you have in the bank. You look forward each day that
comes with zest and excitement. You feel your work and everything else
in life is full of adventure, opportunities and satisfaction. You are
at your best health, you sleep well, and you feel rejuvenated and
inspired.

Russian
author Fyodor Dostoyevsky had similar opinions on this effect on a
working individual. While he was in prison for expressing negative
views against the authorities, he was moved by the misery of prisoners
who were tasked to transfer a huge pile of sand all day. He had
observed that this group of prisoners was the one who tried to escape
thru the electrified barbed-wire fence or committed suicide. The other
group of prisoners on the other hand was tasked to build a railroad.
They appear to be happier and satisfied, in fact he had heard them
singing while at work.

To
find passion at work, you must be in the right job where you are given
the freedom to become a better and wiser person than you are at the
present.And to find the right job, you must be honest with your feelings
and thoughts. You must know the things that matter to you and that will
really make you happy and content. Take time to incorporate your
thoughts and feelings, your sense of individuality, your weaknesses,
strengths, the thing that annoy you, excites you, and what you do
effortlessly and naturally. Knowing what you want and having the
courage to go for it helps your mind and feelings accomplish your
objective.

You
must also make sure that the work you have provides your needs. Many
people quit their jobs because they feel unappreciated, too busy and
drained (signs of poor boundaries), unchallenged, and more. It is
important for you to examine your needs as it is similar to having the
right nutrients in your diet. Fine-tuning your personal needs with the
rewards of work gives you security and contentment. Thus, making you
more inspired and motivated.

A
work with passion is a work that expresses love. This love is not the
romantic love but the love that is conduit to expressing goodwill to
others and the community and yet you get paid at the same time. When
your work is one that spread the love to others, you feel prouder of
yourself. To find passion at work, you can re-examine your roles and
how it contributes for greater work. Then, remind yourself of those
thoughts every now and then.

Some
fears are born from abuses and mistreatment we have received from our
parents, teachers, former employers, co-workers and other people. These
fears oftentimes restrict us to become completely happy and passionate
about our work. A lot of people feel empty because they are guilty of
the past. They feel there is no possibility of finding the work they
love and thus, they only give half of their hearts to it. finding your
purpose at work also means letting go of the monsters of the past. When
you liberate yourself from negative thoughts out of unpleasant past
experiences, you will become more open to experiences that will
transform you to a more mature individual ñ someone that is willing to
accept responsibility of changing her life thru her own hands and
cooperate with positive people to achieve mutually desirable goals.

Things to Accomplish in finding your purpose

The
meaning of success depends on the person who is asked to define such.
For some, this all boils down in finding your purpose. And once that is
achieved, they already feel successful with whatever ventures they have
decided to take. But this is not as easy as you think it is.

When
you are young, you think that anything is possible. As you dare to try
things, you will achieve what you want to happen eventually. If you are
older and you find yourself stuck at a point where you feel like you
have nowhere else to go, this may be harder. You have to clear your
mind of all the negativity that clouds your emotions. You need to take
bigger risks and claim more than what you think you deserve.

Steps towards Your Goal

However
hard the road ahead of you seems to be in order for you to get nearer
to your passion, you must always be ready to take the necessary steps
towards it. Here are some things that you can do in this regard to help
you with where you eventually would want to go.

1.
You must engage yourself in a self assessment process. You have to
think about things. What have you gone through to reach this point in
your life? Where are you right now? And what else do you want to
happen? How do you perceive yourself two to three years from now? If
that is not possible to happen that soon, what do you want to be maybe
five or 10 years after?

After
you have clearly seen the person that you want to be after the years
that you have allotted for you to achieve that, you must look into the
steps that you are undertaking to make sure that it will happen. You
must review the steps that you are doing to make sure that you will
become that person.

You
will feel it inside you if you want to accomplish something so bad that
you are willing to do anything to get there. This is when you feel like
you have no more time for other things that won’t help in order to
become who you eventually want to be. One sign that you are at this
point in your life is when you start reading articles and topics that
can help you be more aware about your goals and ways to get there.

2.
Your goals must be very clear to you. You know what you want to happen.
You know how to get there. Verbalize your thoughts. Is that what you
really want to achieve? Your words should match exactly how you feel.

3.
You must not be too hard on yourself. You should keep your goals
simple. And you must set each step that you will undertake easier to
accomplish. This way, you will not easily give up when you are
presented with unexpected situations.

Once
you have settled your mind in doing the necessary steps for you to
reach the goals that you have set for yourself, just proceed with it.
You should not stop no matter what happens. This is something that you
have to do in order to be at a happier and more fulfilled state.

After
you have taken the steps in finding your purpose, you must cherish your
actions. You should also take good care of whatever you will eventually
achieve to make sure that your hard work is rightly rewarded.

Vital Tips in finding your purpose

Some
people take a lifetime in realizing what they really want to do and
where they want to take their journey. It will be best if you will know
the essentials in finding your purpose while you are still young. This
way, you will have lots of time to fulfill whatever you want to achieve
and enjoy its effects and benefits as well.

It
is not that easy to know what you really want to do for the rest of
your life. There are people who end up pursuing a very unlikely route
while giving in to what they really want to achieve whenever they have
time for it. The reason for such varies. For some, they want to pursue
their passion only after they have gone through several failures.

To help you in this regard, here are some tips that you can follow.

1.
You should look at things around you. Determine what or who inspire you
to achieve whatever goals that you have in mind. They can be your loved
ones or a specific person that encourages you to be better. These can
also be things. What are the objects that create some sparks and
enhance you to move forward? Use these objects and people in order to
find out for yourself what you really want to happen. You can list down
the things and people or places that may come to your mind when you are
thinking about this so that you will keep track of what really matters
to you.

2.
Think about happy thoughts. Reminisce about the times when you were
most happy in your life. What brought about such happiness? What made
you happy? And while you are at it, you should also think about when
was the last time when you experienced such moment. If it has already
been a long time, what do you think caused such state?

3.
You have to go back to the things that ignited your passion in the
past. Read your favorite book. This may be a great time to find console
digging through self-help books. This is especially true if you cannot
talk to anyone close to you regarding the matter in ways that you hope
to be understood.

4.
If you are stuck in a job that you detest and your only reason why you
are doing that is for money, then you will have a harder time in
getting to know where your real passion lies. You may want to look back
at the point before you entered this job. What were you back then or
what were you thinking to achieve at that point? If you have already
saved enough, you may want to consider quitting your current job. This
way, you can allot more time in pursuing the things that you really
want before it is already too late.

5.
You have to be open to whatever possibilities life may bring. You need
to expect more than what you already have for you to acquire such and
reach a level beyond your comfort zone. This can be done by being bold
enough to take a risk at a time. It doesn’t matter how small or how big
it is. Once you start following your heart and mind to reach to the
point where you think you will be happy and satisfied, you are on the
right track. And finding your purpose will be easier in the long run.

Ways to Help You in finding your purpose

It
may be easy to say that you are ready to make certain steps in finding
your purpose. But once you have set your mind to do these, you will
soon realize that nothing is really simple and easy when it comes to
this. There are so many things to think about and issues to be settled
before it finally becomes clear what you really want to achieve.

Take One Step at a Time

To
make sure that you will get to your goal no matter how long it takes,
you should take the necessary steps to get there. The first thing that
you have to fully understand is where you are going to. You have to
define that goal. What do you really want to achieve? At this point,
you must answer truthfully. You cannot aim to be a gold medalist in
swimming when you donít even know how to swim.

To
help you in setting your goals, it will be best if you fully understand
your strengths and weaknesses. You should comprehend all your
limitations. You must not be too hard on yourself by wanting something
that you donít have the capacity to attain.

After
you have defined your goals, it will be easier to plan how you are
going to get there. But before you get serious with that, you have to
analyze your current situation. Are you happy with where you are at?
Because if you are, maybe you should rethink why would you still want
to go on a different path?

On
the other hand, if you feel like you are stuck on your current job and
the circumstances where you are at, then you no longer have to think
about what you should do. This is a very good sign that you have to
move on. You have to get out of your current situation before it gets
too late. Sometimes, people become too comfortable being in the zone
where they are not required to excel. That should not be the case. This
only means that you are no longer allowing yourself to grow. And when
that happens, you may lose track of the goals that you have set to
achieve.

When
you have reached the point that you have forgotten about what you
really want to attain, you must check on your old self. Go back to the
point when you were still not where you are right now. Who are you back
then? What did you dream of becoming and achieving at that point in
your life? What were the things that made you happy and made you feel
inspired? After realizing what you have missed, you must then think
about what went wrong and what happened which caused for you to take a
different route, farther than where you really would want to be.

Expand Your Horizon

No
matter how young or how old you are, you still have chances to correct
your mistakes. You still can take action in finding your purpose. You
can always go back to the point when you have chosen to turn right when
you were supposed to turn left. Go back at that point in your life. And
this time, make sure that you will take the direction to the left with
a more positive attitude that this is really where you want to be.